Achievement

Lindsey Anderson has developed a new technique for the controlled release of molecular loads contained within liposomes. When gold nanoparticles also included within the liposomes are exposed to short laser pulses, they induce transient nanobubbles around the nanoparticles that disrupt the liposomes membrane, releasing the molecular load. Plasmonic nanobubble-induced release was found to be a mechanical, nonthermal process that requires a single laser pulse and ejects the liposome contents within a millisecond timescale without damage to the molecular cargo and that can be controlled through the fluence of laser pulse.

L.J.E. Anderson*, et al., Optically guided controlled release from liposomes with tunable plasmonic nanobubbles, Journal of Controlled Release (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jconrel.2010.02.012